Silicon Investor (SI) -- The First Internet Community

STOCKTALK

We've detected that you're using an ad content blocking browser plug-in or feature. Ads provide a critical source of revenue to the continued operation of Silicon Investor. We ask that you disable ad blocking while on Silicon Investor in the best interests of our community. If you are not using an ad blocker but are still receiving this message, make sure your browser's tracking protection is set to the 'standard' level.

Pastimes : NNBM - SI Branch -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Mannie who wrote (43898)	6/3/2005 1:37:44 PM
From: Crocodile	Read Replies (4) \| Respond to of 104160

thanks, mannie! the "walk with croc" continues.... Part Two: on a long hill which slopes down through the forest, there's an open area where it's often sunny and warm. in this spot, we encounter a skipper flying from one dandelion to the next -- probably a Juvenal's Duskywing Skipper pbase.com i also find and photograph one of a couple of Emerald dragonflies. these are quite beautiful... furry, copper-coloured thorax with a black abdomen which flares out like a turned wooden spindle. pbase.com nearby, i find a Six-spotted Green Tiger Beetle perched on a log which it was using as a look-out spot from which to survey the surrounding forest. these are highly predatory insects -- rapid fliers which sit still watching for prey and then shoot forward as though powered with a jet backpack. pbase.com sometimes you will find them sitting on a sunny place on a trail or boardwalk. they are very observant, so you have to be looking many feet ahead in order to spot them before they blast off. that's why i find it a little puzzling to come upon the crushed remains of a Tiger beetle along the trail. in looking at the photo on my screen once home, i am struck with an odd feeling that i'm looking at a auto or airplane wreckage. it must be the metallic body and the green and white-dotted elytra which look like torn off fenders or wings. pbase.com in some ferns that grow next another pond, i find one of my best "shots of the day"...a large and beautifully marked Carrion Beetle. it is perched atop the tip of a frond. i occasionally find these in early summer -- probably just recently emerged after pupating in the soil over winter. most of the time, we don't see Carrion beetles as they are more creatures of darkness... found mainly when investigating dead animals. i suppose that they're what we might think of as "recyclers. pbase.com my second "good shot" of the day comes soon after.... a female Ebony Jewelwing with her wings displayed so that all 4 can be seen, along with their white stigmas. it is rare to see them this way. when at rest, they are usually folded back so that they look like a single pair of wings. in flight, the wings bend and whir just as they appear in this photo -- which creates a bouncing, unstable flight... fun to watch. the wings look like swirling black veils to me when i see the female up close in this foto. pbase.com nearby, i photograph a male Ebony with his wings folded back into the typical pose. look at his eyes -- he is looking straight into the lens of the camera. i know i will have only a second to shoot this photo because he knows he's being watched. i click, and sure enough, he shoots upwards and is gone a moment later. pbase.com ooops.. guess there will be a Part Three as the whole post won't go up in one piece. ~croc